[Actionchix] LinuxChix as a legal entity

[Mary Gardiner]

Just for the record, since it's starting to come up in the logo
discussion, the idea of LinuxChix being a formal not-for-profit
organisation of some kind has been raised numerous times over a period
of years. It's generally been agreed to be a good idea for a few
reasons, mostly continuity.

What's the problem?

No one's done it yet. There are certainly some obstacles to overcome
(which country would we register it in? who would administer it? what
are the tax implications? etc etc), but the basic problem is that for
whatever reason no one has thought it worth overcoming them enough to
actually volunteer to do it. Which is fine, because it would be a
reasonable amount of work in the short/medium term, and you're not
seeing *me* volunteering. ;) I'm just filling people in on what the
status of the idea is.

If anyone is willing to coordinate the effort of investigating and
proposing a model, and anyone is willing to implement that model, then
this would probably be a good thing for us. People would need to
chat extensively to Jenn Vesperman, the current coordinator, during this
process. Until someone does this though, we need to treat LinuxChix as
an informal association of individuals. It works quite well, even if it
is a pain for things like copyright law.

-Mary

PS I don't want this to turn into a "LinuxChix could..." or "LinuxChix
should..." thread, just because we've had those discussions before on
this issue, and it's evidently not helping us move forward. If someone
volunteers to coordinate a LinuxChix-organisation, that will be the time
to share strategies, tips, ideas and worries. Thanks :)